History recognized in New Castle

The Odd Fellows Building in downtown New Castle, now home to New Castle Dental, had a few special visitors tour the facility last week for the building being recognized as one of the town’s oldest structures. Built in 1890, the building has been home to a saloon, a butcher’s shop, and now rehabilitated it provides dental service to residents throughout town and the Western Slope.

Colorado’s historical tax credit was recently reauthorized by the state and New Castle Dental is among 59 projects to take advantage of the credit, according to Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer Mark Rodman.

Of those 59 projects, 14 have been completed, he said.

He along with State Representative Bob Rankin, town officials of New Castle and owner Lauren Roper toured the building last week to see how the tax credit was put to use.

Roper purchased the building in July, 2016 and almost immediately began to rehabilitate the building to bring it up to modern standards, while keeping the historic look intact.

New Castle Town Administrator David Reynolds called the renovations “gorgeous” and said Roper was able to maintain the historical character of the building inside and out.

“From the outside it looks like a historical building and on the inside it’s a modern dental practice,” he explained.

He said that Roper “set the way for this in New Castle and the rest of the Western Slope” and called it a textbook example of how the tax credit should be used.

He plans to reach out to other building owners in the area to see if they can benefit from the program.

In total, the final cost of the renovation project was over $400,000 and Roper said the tax credit helped to pay for over 25 percent of the costs.

She said she completely gutted the now two-story building and added new walls, a new interior and more.

“We loved the idea of taking a historic building and turning it around,” she explained.

Roper and her husband were looking for a town to start a dental practice in when they happened upon New Castle. She said they fell in love with the town and within a few months a friend introduced her to the building’s former owner and the rest is history.

Rodman said that of the $411,000 of renovation qualified for the tax credit, 25 percent was paid through the tax credit, which came out to $123,300 received in credit.